Wish Right Now
by Kaslyna
Summary: What if they weren't dead? Totally AU. A chance meeting in Chicago leads Kate, Claire, and Jenny- three radically different women -onto the path of rediscovery. Rated M for the usual. More details inside. Please give this a try! :D
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Because I figured, what the hell, why not bring back a bunch of dead characters? What if they weren't dead? What if Jenny Shepard, Kate Todd, and Claire Kincaid all met up randomly after their "deaths"? What if they wanted to get back to the ones they loved? Totally AU story, an idea I got totally randomly that started as a joke with my friend. :/ Jenny/Claire/Kate, Gibbs/Jenny, Jack/Claire, Tony/Ziva, Tony/Kate, Gibbs/Abby, Ducky/Jenny, Vance's Wife/Jimmy, and McGee/Ziva. Rated M for the usual shit. NCIS-Law & Order crossover if you haven't already figured it out. ;) Warning: Not for anyone who is against lesbianism or gays. Half these crack pairings belong to my friend. :/ I'm the writer, though he helped. XD Please, do give it a try! Read and review, you know you want to! :)**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. Dick Wolf and NBC own Law & Order and Fox and whomever owns NCIS owns NCIS. :/ I own nothing but the plot and my good friend helped me write, after insisting he couldn't. You rock. :D Oh, and I own the kids. Well, so does Thunder. :/**

She downed the glass of the scorching amber liquid. It was her third tonight, but this was typical for Jenny Shepard. She had spent the past three years in Chicago working at a grocery store and living in a hotel room. It wasn't ideal and it sure as hell wasn't pleasant, but it was certainly simple and anonymous. She smiled and chuckled darkly as she once again thought of Washington, D.C. The first year after her shooting she had spent crying, denying, and recovering. The last two years had been spent picking up random women (yes, women, because it was so much harder than to get a guy, and plus Jenny enjoyed the challenge) at bars. She hadn't had a serious relationship in three years.

The bar door opens, and something makes her turn. A young woman with chestnut curls that reach her elbows and hazel eyes struts in. She definitely isn't what Jenny would describe as "hot" but she seems like, if she's willing, a good fuck. After two years, Jenny can tell these things. She smiles fleetingly at the woman and she smiles briefly back before coming over and asking, in a husky voice, "Is this seat taken?"

"Not at all," Jenny replies; yes, indeed, this woman would do for the night.

"My name's Claire. What's your name?" she purrs, almost seductively.

"J-Jenny," she stutters, then gulps, a tad flustered. Claire grins wickedly at the extremely aroused, extremely confused redhead beside her.

"Well, _Jenny_," she whispers in her sultry, yet soothing tone, inching closer, her hands creeping up onto Jenny's thighs, "What's a lovely young woman like yourself doing alone on such a fine night as this one?"

"I, um... uh, I don't know, I guess," she shrugs, "I just needed a break."

"Same here," Claire murmurs, now into her ear, "I work as a paralegal. What do you do?"

"I'm, uh, I'm a grocery store clerk," Jenny admits in a low mumble, blushing furiously.

"Oooh, sexy," she grins.

Jenny, a tad relieved, grins back, suddenly somewhat comforted by this woman and her presence. There was a strange connection between them; perhaps, almost an understanding, even? She sighed and returned to her drink; realizing it was empty, she flagged the bartender, ordered another, and politely asked Claire what she wanted.

"_You_," she whispered, "I want you."

Then suddenly, like a wave on a beach, Claire's lips were crashing down upon Jenny's. What started slow, sweet, and innocent almost instantly became heated and passionate. Jenny threw five twenties at the bartender, mumbled something along the lines of "keep the change", and the two of them left, hand in hand, knowing _exactly_ where they both wanted to end up tonight.

* * *

As soon as they entered Claire's apartment Jenny's lips were every, all at once, exploring fervently the soft, subtle contours of Claire's time-worn body. She wondered, not for the first time that warm summer night, what Claire had gone through to get to this moment, as she so often did when foreplay ensued with her many various one-night stands.

"My," Claire gasped out, "Roommate, Kate, is at her boyfriend's. We gotta be quiet. I, uh. I have a daughter."

"I always wanted a child," Jenny comments briefly before continuing her earlier ministrations.

Before long they were devoid of clothing, which had been shed previously and strewn haphazardly about the bedroom and en suite bathroom. Claire gently pushed Jenny down onto the bed and straddled her hips, reaching down between them and sneakily guiding two fingers into her center. Jenny gasped out and writhed beneath her, and Claire grinned and purred. She continued fingering Jenny as her lips descended onto her one-time lovers' yet again.

"Oh, fuck," Claire groaned out, grinding her hips into Jenny's as Jenny subtly slid two of her own fingers into Claire.

"You're soaking. Just for me, I hope," Jenny murmured huskily.

"God, you're so tight, baby. Fucking mother of Jesus, I think I'm about to..." Claire's breath hitched and she moaned, eyes rolling back into her head a little as she began seeing stars. Jenny thrust harder and faster and swiped and pinched at her clitoris until Claire was all but screaming out her name as she came. A few more thrusts of Claire's fingers within Jenny and she, too, was moaning and gasping and cussing and writhing.

"That was _amazing_," Jenny panted, trying to regain her breath shortly after the encounter, while Claire was lying on her side.

"Yeah," Claire agreed, turning to smile at Jenny. Jenny, too, smiled, though shyly.

"What's her name?"

"Excuse me?" Claire's brow furrowed and her lips puckered. Jenny chuckled, rolling her eyes, a tad more amused than she perhaps should have been by Claire's utter ignorance and lack of telepathy.

"Your daughter's name, what is it, if you don't mind my asking...?" Jenny clarified, more than a little exhausted and definitely exasperated.

"Oh. Right, sorry. Her name is Karen. Karen Anita McCoy," she replied.

"Pretty name. How old is she?"

"What is this, an interrogation?" asked Claire, shifting slightly so that Jenny could see her smile and feel her chuckling against her.

Jenny blushed before stuttering, "N-no, sorry. Just curious is all."

"Nah, it's okay," Claire shrugged and kissed Jenny sweetly on the lips, "Karen is fourteen. She was born February 17, 1997 at 3:12 in the afternoon. She weighed five pounds, six ounces, and was due on March 2."

"Why's a paralegal need a roommate, anyways?"

"It's Kate's apartment. She's an art teacher at the nearby Catholic school," Claire shrugged, as if pondering something, perhaps, "She needed extra support and I needed a place to stay. It works out perfectly for us."

Just then there was a loud, resounding bang, and loud, angry curses. "Kate's home," Claire muttered, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Jenny quickly took that as her cue to dress and hurriedly did so, as did Claire, neither wanting to be caught _naked_ together.

"Claire? You up?" hollers Kate.

"Jesus, Kate, you _trying_ to wake up Karen?" Claire demands, angrily.

"Sorry," she mumbles, then sighs, awkwardly, "Enrique broke up with me. He was seeing another woman, um, I think her name was Jodie. Don't kill her, please?"

Kate stumbles into the darkened bedroom and flickers on the light.

What Jenny sees makes her gasp in shock and disbelief.

"Agent Todd?"

"Director Shepard?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: First a little backstory, and then we continue where we left off. In my world Kate "died" in April. Okay?**

**Disclaimer: Same as the last chapter. :/**

_April 29, 2005_

Kate woke up and rolled over, groaning a little as she stretched. Her eyelids fluttered open. It was 7:30, so what had woken her up? She checks and is a little disappointed to find the bed empty, as it has been since that cold February night two months ago. She frowns, trying to remain in the present as she swings her legs over the side of the bed. She sucks in a breath as she becomes very dizzy and nauseous upon standing. Clapping a hand over her mouth, Kate dashes into the bathroom, barely making it in time to vomit in the toilet.

"You okay?" she turns to see her sister sitting calmly on the rib of the bathtub and she scowls.

"What do you want, Kris?" she snaps at her identical twin.

She shrugs then replies, simply, "I'm up here on a mission. I was sent here to help breakup a terror cell."

Kristen Todd is the same as Kate, aside from some birthmarks. She's CIA and annoying as hell. For the past six years, since they were twenty-five, she had been living in Miami.

Kate calls her doctor as Kris makes breakfast for them. She sighs and tells Kris, "Dammit, Kris. I gotta go to the doctor's today at one. Think you can do me a favor? A twin favor?"

"What is it?" Kris asks, her interest suddenly peaked.

"I need you to cover for me at work. Please, Kris?" begs Kate, "I don't really feel up to working today and we're on a really big case..."

"On it," Kris nods fervently her agreement and Kate grins in relief.

"Thank you, thank you, Kris! I owe you," Kate promises, hugging her sister. Kris chuckles and mumbles something like "yeah, you do".

Kris goes out, fully dressed and prepared to be Kate Todd for the day. The real Kate showers and goes for a jog, then rents the original Dracula because she knows it's Kris's favorite movie of all time. At eleven she eats a quick lunch at the Thai restaurant down the street and begins the walk to the subway. She's at her doctor's at 12:45 PM. Fifteen minutes later she's describing the symptoms of the past two weeks or so. The doctor takes a blood sample and a urine sample and comes back beaming thirty minutes later.

"Congratulations, Miss Todd," Doctor Erin Carter begins, slowly, carefully, "You're pregnant. I'm recommending you see this OB/GYN-" she slaps a card into a stunned Kate's palm, "She's very good."

She nods and mumbles a "thank you". She changes and leaves, setting up an appointment via phone with the doctor she was recommended, Doctor Remy Nolan. At three she's at the new doctor's, who guesses her to be about nine weeks pregnant and due on or around November 19.

Which means this baby is the result of the drunken one-night stand she had had with Tony two months ago.

* * *

_Still April 29, 2005_

Kate hears about it on the six o'clock news as she is reheating a lasagna she had made last Sunday. She vomits and then curls into a ball in the corner of the bathroom and sobs.

Kristen was dead. But they thought it was her!

All she could do now was simple: run away.

* * *

_November 22, 2005_

Kate had thought long and hard about her pregnancy and had maybe thought about putting the kid up for adoption. But then she had given birth to her daughter, Abigail Veronica Todd.

And she knew she would never leave her.

* * *

_Present Day_

"Y-you're alive?" stammers Jenny.

"S-so are y-you!" accuses Kate shakily.

"You know each other?" asks Claire.

Jenny nods, swallowing and responds, "Yes. She... she worked for my ex-boyfriend until her death six years ago."

"Y-you d-died! In t-that fire three years a-ago!" exclaims Kate, incredulous.

Claire gulps, continuing to watch them cautiously from afar.

"N-no! I-I... Kate, I was s-shot. They thought that I... that I was dead. B-but I wasn't. They had replaced my body in the hospital with a lookalike. I went undercover for seven months after my shooting."

"I-it was my twin, Kris, who... who d-died that day," Kate murmured sadly, "I needed to see the doctor and wanted to play hooky, so she went to work in m-my place. M-my m-mother says her death i-is my f-fault."

The two women were holding each other and sobbing when a little girl came in and in a sleepy, confused voice asked, "Mommy? Why are you crying?"

Jenny stared. The girl was perhaps five or six, with dusty-brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. Her skin was pale as the moon. It couldn't possibly be...

"Jenny, this is my daughter, Abby. Abby, baby, this is my friend, Jenny."

"We need to talk," insisted Jenny, tears brimming in her eyes as she thought of her own little secret...

* * *

_July 9, 2000_

She had watched him leave Paris in November, unknowingly pregnant. Now she was holding her daughter for the first and last time. The couple who were adopting her, a French woman and her British lesbian lover, were waiting for her to hand the child over. Their names were Madeleine and Annabeth Bronson. They were in their twenties and already had an adopted son who was three named Damien.

"We're naming her Grace," said Madeleine, "Grace Jennifer Bronson."

Jenny burst into tears. It was too much for her, all too much, and so she handed over her daughter willingly, but regretfully.

He would never know he had a daughter, were her thoughts as she passed the baby to the eager mommies.

* * *

_Present Day_

Jenny watched the sun coming up over Lake Michigan and smiled briefly, tiredly, fleetingly. After talking with Kate for hours she and Claire had had made love once more. She'd left Claire asleep to watch the sunrise. Who knew in just ten hours her life could have changed so irrevocably? Especially all due to a semi-drunken one-night stand with an intriguing woman shrouded in mystery?

Jenny sighed, knowing that she should head home. Her shift was in a few hours, after all. But she didn't really want to leave.

"You can visit whenever you like," Jenny turns and smiles softly, warmly at Kate.

"Thank you, Kate," she murmured, exhausted suddenly.

"Come. I'll make you some tea and breakfast and you can crash with Claire. What time you gotta be at work, anyways?"

"Ten," she shrugged, "Thanks. Would you mind... if I checked out of the hotel today and came to live here?"

"Not at all," Kate smiled warmly, "Anything for an old friend. You'll just have to help with rent, groceries, etc., and occasionally watch Karen and Abby. Not too difficult, believe me."

"Thank you so much, Kate. I've been in Chicago for two and a half years now and haven't found a place."

"Gladly," Kate grinned, "I'm making omelets and tea; would you mind setting the table...?"

"No, not at all."

* * *

_September, One Month Later_

It all started with a letter, from Mrs. Francine Gellar of Manhattan, New York, to her daughter, Miss Claire Sophie Kincaid, of Chicago, Illinois.

In said letter, it stated that her stepfather, Mac Gellar, had died of a heart attack on September 8. The funeral was in two days, on September 17. She was requested to attend.

She told Kate and Jenny, who had in the past month become her sort-of-almost-girlfriend. They both agreed to go with her and be her support. And that was how they found themselves packing. Karen was in the kids' room helping Abby, who was like her little sister, pack.

"Babe, it's gonna be okay," assured Jenny, planting an adoring kiss onto Claire's lips.

"Hope so," Claire says with a world-weary sigh, biting her lower lip, "Baby, there's something you and Kate don't know?"

"What is it?"

"That... I haven't seen my mom in eleven years. Because I, too was presumed dead," she admitted in a low mumble.

"Wow."

"I was in a car accident July 15, 1996. I was in a coma until I was presumed dead on August 31, 1996. They had a funeral for me. Gradually, sometime around November or December, I became aware of voices. I didn't wake up until Karen began crying."

"Baby, it's gonna be okay," she cooed.

"No, that's not the thing. You see, I stayed with my mother for two years after Karen's birth, until I realized it was _her _idea to declare me dead, _her_ idea not to tell my boyfriend of a year and a half, Jack McCoy. That's why I left."

"Claire, we're gonna be in this together, okay?" Jenny quickly reassures her girlfriend, who smiles sadly, wistfully, briefly.

"Thanks, Jen. I don't know if I can go through this without you," Claire admits truthfully.

"No problem, babe," she says, giving her a quick peck on the lips, "I'll go see if Karen and Abby are ready yet, okay?"

"Thanks."

"Anything for you, babe."

"Jen?"

"Yes, babe?"

"...I love... I love you," Claire stammers out, face instantly reddening.

Jenny's face was unreadable as she slowly made her way to Claire. Her lips were covering Claire's quickly, grateful for this beautiful, wonderful woman in front of her. Claire let out a low, soft moan of delight as Jenny's tongue plunged deep within her mouth to duel with hers.

Jenny kicked the door shut with one leg while gently pushing Claire down onto the bed. She straddled her hips and smiled as she whispered, "I love you, too."

Soon clothes were shed and they were in a passionate frenzy. Half an hour later they had settled down and quickly dressed and finished packing. Jenny went off to check on Karen and Claire began to doubt what she had just admitted. She did love Jenny; but she was still in love with Jack.

Meanwhile, Jenny, too, had her doubts. She loved Claire, yes, but her heart would forever belong to Gibbs. She could tell that in a way, Claire was in love with someone else. However, they were a comfort to one another, and besides, the sex was great. Either way, they knew in their hearts they were mismatched. Claire belonged with Jack and Jenny belonged with Gibbs.

She sighed. Kate glanced up from where she was packing to give her a quizzical look, to which Jenny responded to with an absent shake of her head. She found Karen in the girls' room; her suitcase was packed and she was currently helping Abby pack enough for the week-long trip to New York City. Abby was giddy with excitement, much like her namesake often was.

"Kari! When are we going?" the little girl whined. Kate had since told Jenny that Abby's sixth birthday was on November 22.

"Tonight, Abby," huffed the terrorized teenager.

"Karen, Abby, you guys done?" asked Jenny, leaning against the doorframe, a bemused expression upon her face.

"Almost," Karen scrunched up her nose, "Um, Jenny, do you mind helping us?"

"Sure," Jenny pushed herself off the frame and came in.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Between the three (well, more like two, because Abby went off to play Barbies halfway through) of them they were all packed up in twenty minutes. The flight was at nine-thirty tonight; it was an hour and a half flight and they'd be there around eleven. Claire's mother had arranged a car service to take them from JFK to their hotel in Brooklyn, about fifteen minutes if there wasn't bad traffic to Mrs. Gellar's house in the Far Rockaways. They had agreed to go earlier than necessary to sightsee. There was also something Claire wasn't saying but Jenny knew; she wanted to try to find Jack.

They ate a quick, but late, dinner at the airport before using bathrooms and boarding the plane. Kate sat with Abby and some businessman, and Claire sat with Karen and Jenny. Abby and Kate were asleep and Karen was reading and listening to her MP3 player. Claire and Jenny were talking.

At eleven-thirty they landed and made their way to the car. At midnight they had checked into the hotel; they had two adjoining rooms. Kate and Abby took one room and Claire, Jenny, and Karen took the other.

"Thank you," Claire murmured into the darkness, shifting a little.

"You're very welcome."

"I love you, Jenny."

"I love you too, Claire."


End file.
